Some are empire builders. Others are hired guns. But if they truly have world-class oomph, they're on Fortune's subjective - yet really quite accurate - list of the most
powerful businesspeople in the world.

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2. Rupert Murdoch

Chairman and CEO, News Corp.

News Corp. is a global force across the board - film, television, print, and even online (it owns the social networking site MySpace).

Murdoch wanted more, and he got it with the $5 billion acquisition of Dow Jones. It was the crowning achievement of a career that started in 1953 when he inherited control of
two Australian newspapers. Murdoch expanded to Britain in the 1960s, the U.S. in the '70s, and Asia in the 1990s. In Britain he owns the biggest tabloid, the Sun, and in
the U.S. the New York Post and his Fox News Network are known for their take-no-prisoners attitude.

Derided by his critics as a tabloid hound all too willing to kowtow to China for the sake of commercial gain, the purchase of the Wall Street Journal was a particularly
sweet victory.

At 76, Murdoch appears to be at the height of his powers. He views Dow Jones, along with the recent launch of the Fox Business Network, as steps in the creation of a
globe-spanning financial news powerhouse. Can he do it? The breadth of his ambition could be his Achilles heel - the more dominant News Corp. becomes, the more opposition it
tends to provoke. Still, Murdoch has proved time and again that counting him out is a high-risk strategy. --Tim Arango